1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of publishing, and in particular, to a confluence of printed and electronic publishing.
2. Description of Related Art
The internet, as part of the world wide web, has as its primary function establishing links between web site browsers and millions of different web sites, each of which can be expected to provide different kinds of information and data. Each of the web sites is a part of the web itself. Books, magazines, journals, newspapers and the like are now widely available at various web sites, under the general category now commonly referred to as electronic publishing. Despite the availability of copies of printed publications on the world wide web, and even the availability of on-line magazines without any corresponding printed versions, there has yet to be a confluence of printed and electronic publishing beyond the mere substitution of one medium for the other.
Indeed, there is a strong feeling among many people that a certain kind of "magic" one can experience curled up in a chair with a good book is utterly lacking in the electronic publishing of the internet, and always will be lacking. As a result, the two media have always lacked, and continue to lack an advantageous common ground which provides readers with the advantages of both media, namely the "magic` of a book in hand and the extraordinary ability of the internet to provide access to sources of information from almost anywhere in the world, or even from an orbit around the world.
The manner in which computer apparatus have been used as sources of information on the internet and as tools for accessing those sources of information, are illustrated by the following patent references.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,600,831 discloses an apparatus with a knowledge base built upon a description logic based knowledge representation system that is implemented using a digital computer and information sources accessed via the Internet communication network. The sources generally are network-based information servers accessed by standard internet communication protocols. A consequence of the very large number of information sites is said to be the need for a world view, and to relate to the contents of the information sources, site descriptions are needed, and to minimize the cost, the site descriptions must be rich enough to express various constraints that enable the system to prune the sources accessed. Web site authors are advised to use retrieval information that will optimize being found.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,572,643 is directed to a web browser with dynamic display of information objects during linking, so that the wasted time during the linking and downloading presents to the user an advertisement, message, or notice rather than the unrecognizable image being formed. When the user browsing the Worldwide Web using a HTML compliant client supporting a graphical user interface in-browser requests to link to a hyper document from a remote server, the waiting period is long so that a message may be presented, preferably related to the web site.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,588,060 is directed to a method and apparatus scheme for internet protocols to provide additional security at the network layer to prevent hackers from interjecting themselves into a data transfer. This is a scheme that is suitable for use with the IP protocol, as well as the proposed replacement protocols CLMP and SIPP. This scheme is for use between a small number of users that communicate with each other.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,530,852 is directed to a computer implemented method and apparatus for automatically sorting through electronic files on the Internet and to form a sub-set of the information. The implementation uses a client server architecture using any number of commercially or publicly available browsers. The computer system could be a workstation, personal computer, or other processing apparatus. The communication uses the functionality provided by hyper transfer protocol HTTP and the uniform resource locators (URLs).
One further use of the internet to consider is that most manuals for computers, peripherals and software are printed with the internet address of the vendor, to facilitate on-line help and the purchase of other products from the vendor.
Notwithstanding the various ways in which information on the internet has been and can be manipulated, accessed, transferred and copied, no system has yet been developed which provides the confluence, that is, the common ground, of printed and electronic media in such a way that a reader can experience the "magic" of a printed book, and in conjunction with that reading, be directed to sources of information and data available on the internet, and specifically keyed to that particular book. The absence of such an advantageous system is particularly egregious in the realm of books for children and young adults. The choices of children and young adults, and the choices of parents on their behalf, are presently limited for the most part to choosing between printed and CD ROM copies of the same books. There is no opportunity to appreciate the advantages of combining complementary sources of paper-printed books and electronically-accessible information and data, particularly in an educational context.